Pundit says £20m man Arsenal sold would walk into Tottenham’s XI these days

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Former Arsenal midfielder Joe Willock would be a starter for Tottenham Hotspur these days following his superb displays at high-flyers Newcastle United, former Premier League ace Darren Ambrose tells talkSPORT (15 January, 7pm).

Willock, since breaking a club record with goals in seven consecutive games towards the back end of 2020/21, has scored just four more times in England’s top flight. Four goals in his last 54 games.

But statistics, as they say, can be misleading. The numbers alone do not highlight just how integral Willock is to Eddie Howe’s system; those thundering bursts of energy and aggression, the belligerent ball-carrying, the relentless pressing.

If any player epitomises the guts and the character of the most impressive Newcastle side since the heady days of Sir Bobby Robson, it’s Willock.

Would former Arsenal youngster Joe Willock be a starter at Tottenham Hotspur?

As such, the £20 million fee Newcastle paid to sign the former England U21 international from Mikel Arteta’s Premier League leaders looks more and more like a bargain with every pugnacious performance, Willock a key cog in arguably the Premier League’s most well-drilled, well-balanced midfield unit.

Well, apart from the Partey-Xhaka-Odegaard axis at Arsenal, of course.

And Ambrose, the Spurs-supporting former Newcastle prospect, believes that Antonio Conte is crying out for a player like Willock; Tottenham’s one-paced engine room in dire need of horsepower.

“Joe Willock would probably get in (at Tottenham), in front of the midfield we have at the moment,” says Ambrose. “We have no midfielders who run beyond (the striker) and get into the box. Joe Willock does. What player have Spurs got who plays like Joe Willock?”

Antonio Conte under big pressure at Spurs

Newcastle moved up to third following Sunday’s late 1-0 win over a resilient Fulham outfit, moving five points clear of a Tottenham side outclassed in the North London derby. While Spurs continue to perform like a team far worse than the sum of their parts, the complete opposite is true of Newcastle United. Yes, Howe has spent big sums on the likes of Sven Botman, Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak. But let’s not forget that Fabian Schar and Sean Longstaff – relics of the Steve Bruce era – are still wearing black-and-white, week in, week out.

It’s tempting to wonder what Howe could achieve with the likes of Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son, Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur.

In addition to Willock, Ambrose believes Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier, Botman, Burn and Guimaraes would also saunter into Conte’s XI without breaking sweat on current form.